Summary
After Socrates' brief and rather flippant
request for the death penalty to be commuted, the
jury votes to put Socrates to death. This time,
the margin is greater--over two thirds--in contrast
to the narrow margin that found Socrates guilty.
Socrates now makes his final address to the jury
before being led off to prison.
He warns those that sentenced him that they will
hereafter be blamed for putting a wise man to
death. If only they had had a little patience, he
suggests, he would have died without their help;
after all, he already an old man of seventy. He
reflects that perhaps he might have saved himself
by saying whatever was necessary to secure his
acquittal, of weeping or appealing to the jury's
mercy. However, he has not done so for lack of
ingenuity, but for lack of impudence: he would be
disgracing himself and the court if he were to make
such appeals. The difficulty, as he sees it, is
not to outrun death, but to outrun wickedness,
which is a far more dogged pursuer. Socrates
accepts that he has been outrun by death, but
points out that, unlike him, his accusers have been
outrun by wickedness. While he has been condemned
to death by a human jury, his accusers have been
convicted of depravity and injustice by no less a
tribunal than Truth herself. He is happier
accepting his sentence than theirs, and considers
this to be a fair sentence.
He finishes his address to those who voted against
him with a stern prophecy. Though they may have
managed to silence him in the hopes that they can
continue to live free of criticism, he will be
replaced by even more critics who until now have
kept silent. Socrates warns his accusers that in
order to live free of criticism, one must behave
well rather than stop the mouths of one's critics.
Socrates then addresses those who voted to acquit
him, to reconcile themselves to his fate. He
remarks that the divine voice that often warns him
against harmful actions has remained silent
throughout the trial and throughout his own speech.
From this he concludes that perhaps death is a
blessing, since his sign would have opposed him
unless his actions were to bring about a good
result. After all, Socrates reasons, death is
either annihilation--a complete and final sleep--or
death is a transmigration, where his soul would
live on somewhere else. If death is annihilation,
it is to be looked forward to as we would look
forward to a deep, restful sleep. On the other
hand, if death is a transmigration to some sort of
afterlife, that afterlife will be populated by all
the great figures of the past, from Homer to
Odysseus. Socrates remarks how delightful it would
be to pass amongst these great figures, questioning
them regarding their wisdom.
The conclusion Socrates reaches, then, is that the
good man has nothing to fear either in this life or
the next. He denies any grudge against his
accusers, even though they seek his life, and asks
his friends to look after his three sons and to
make sure that they always put goodness above money
or other earthly trappings. Socrates concludes
with the famous phrase: "Well, now it is time to be
off, I to die and you to live; but which of us has
the happier prospect is unknown to anyone but God"
(42a).
Commentary
We find another interesting application of Socratic
irony in Socrates' assertion that he would be
showing impudence if he were to weep and beg for
mercy. To the jury, he would have been showing
impudence by not doing so and defiantly maintaining
his position. The fact is, Socrates does show
impudence to the court, but this kind of impudence
is of little value or interest to Socrates. When
he speaks of impudence, he refers to impudence
before the much higher tribunals of Truth and
goodness. He would be compromising his dignity and
his duty to truth if he were to so debase himself.
Socrates then is ultimately condemned by this jury
because he does not speak to them, but to the
truth. His moral position in general is one of
always trying to be just and honest rather than to
please his fellow person, knowing that even if he
irritates others, he is ultimately doing them good
by living justly and truthfully.
